11 of 13 dial-a-ride buses off the road

It is the second set of problems in five months for the dial-a-ride service

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Problems with a council-run community bus service have left elderly residents having to rely on taxis to keep their medical appointments.

Eleven of the 13 dial-a-ride buses operating in Guildford are currently out of service due to issues with their seat mountings and electrical systems.

The situation has inconvenienced dozens of elderly or immobile residents throughout the borough, who rely on the scheme for transportation.

Many of them use the service for regular shopping trips, to keep doctors’ appointments and to visit sick relatives.

Peter Walker, a volunteer for Surrey-based charity Talk, which helps people recovering from strokes regain key skills, said that clients used the buses to attend their weekly sessions in Chestnut Avenue.

“For the last couple of weeks we have had to pay for taxis,” he said.

“It costs us a certain amount of money which, as a charity, we can ill afford. It’s an expense which we could do without, there are lots of people who use this system. It is rather poor.”

Electrical faults

This is the second time the door-to-door service has run into trouble since the brand new £500,000 fleet of vehicles was unveiled amid large celebrations last September.

Only two months after the launch, some seats had to be replaced and others refitted after a crack was found in one of the mountings.

Electrical faults have also resulted in the buses failing to start and have caused problems with the vehicles’ central locking systems.

Mr Walker said that one of Talk’s clients, a 94-year-old woman, was stuck on a bus for around 45 minutes shortly after it had taken to the road.

Head of the borough council's housing advice services, Jeff Holderness, said the fleet had been withdrawn as a precaution and that all the buses’ seats were being replaced with a strengthened design.

He said neither the vehicle builder, Guildford-based firm John Dennis, nor the seat manufacturers had any experience of such problems previously.

“There have also been some problems with the electrical systems and the opportunity is being taken to resolve these at the same time,” Mr Holderness explained.

“Individual vehicles have been taken out of service but alternative vehicles are in place to help maintain this popular and valuable service.”

Mr Holderness said the seat replacements were being carried out at no cost to the council, and an expert report was being prepared on the electrical faults.

“The responsibility for any work required will be decided when this report is completed,” he added.